User blog:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Evelynn, the Widowmaker
This is a tentative rework for Evelynn, the Widowmaker. After suffering for a long time, Eve finally got the update she deserved, bringing her theme and personality to modern standards, and injecting some much-needed counterplay and high moments to her kit. She is better than she has ever been in the past. She is not without issues, though: it's pretty clear Riot took great pains to make sure she had as much counterplay as possible, and in doing so kind of sabotaged much of her power, outright preventing her from accessing her stealth early in the game. Additionally, her dependence on her ultimate as both a major nuke and her escape means she lacks the damage to win fights, but also lacks the escape options to survive them when it's on cooldown. This is an issue core to the design or modern assassin ults, which leave their champions often practically dysfunctional when they're not available. When I initially set out with this rework, it was at a time when Evelynn's kit was still poorly-defined and poorly-designed. In this respect, the following changes don't aim to radically change the new Eve, whose core design and theme are fundamentally good now. Rather, the goal here is to improve upon the work that has already been laid out, and let Eve gank and pick off targets with much more agency, while still offering lots of counterplay to her victims. Abilities Evelynn becomes invisible when out of combat. |targeting='Demon Shade' is a self-buff. |additional=Core to Evelynn's playstyle and identity is her stealth, and the terrifying map presence it brings: when Evelynn's in the game, it means any enemy can get ganked from anywhere at any moment, and her very existence can completely change early game strategies, which is a good thing. What's not so good, however, is that her stealth once came with a lot of upfront burst, and not cannot even be truly used as a ganking tool. This is a shame, considering how iconic Eve's stealth is and how important it's been for her ganking power, and I feel the better approach here would be to make sure she gives her targets plenty more opportunities to react to her in the middle of combat, rather than impose awkward restrictions upon her invisibility. Additionally, I made Eve manaless, as I think mana currently doesn't serve as an appropriate gate to her power anyway. Her uptime should be defined by her ability to approach her target and weave around them, not a casting resource, which is why removing her mana constraints would likely not affect her interactivity. }} Evelynn stabs a lasher forth, marking the first enemy it hits for 4 seconds. |description2=While Evelynn is her target, a spike protrudes from under them each second, dealing magic damage to the marked target each time. |leveling2= | }} |range=800 |cooldown=8 |targeting='Hate Spike' is a linear colliding skill shot. |spellshield=will block the mark but not the damage. |additional=The new Hate Spike is a great development upon the old one, keeping its spammy-looking nature while encouraging much more skillful use. It's a little all over the place, in part because it still tries to stick to the old Hate Spike via its recasts, and doesn't punish Eve too hard for missing. Here I'm simplifying the effect a little, and back-loading its damage even more. }} Evelynn curses the target enemy champion or monster for 4 seconds, expunging it on her next strike. |description2=If the curse persists for 2 seconds or longer, expunging it the target. |leveling2= |range= |cooldown= |targeting='Allure' is a unit-targeted ability. |additional=Lots of small changes, no major changes, with the idea here just being that the ability's meant to be a charm, rather than a whole set of debuffs. Not mentioned in the above description, but I want Allure to no longer have a directional indicator, but instead break Eve's stealth, in part due to thematic reasons (Eve needs to be visible and in glamour to be able to seduce targets), but also for gameplay purposes, so that she is guaranteed to telegraph her intentions. }} Evelynn's plants a lasher into the target enemy, following their movement. |description2=If the target tears themselves off by moving from Evelynn, or if she reactivates Ravage, they take magic damage, based on how far she traveled around them. |description3=Completing a full circle around the target tears Evelynn off automatically, dealing maximum damage. |leveling2= | }} |range=125 |cooldown=8 |targeting='Ravage' is a unit-targeted ability. |damagetype=magic |spellshield=will block the initial hit but not the damage. |additional=This is a complete change from Whiplash on live, and one I think is both warranted (live Ravage is not an interesting ability, nor does it have truly original gameplay) and perhaps a bit experimental: the idea here is that Eve should not only stick to her target, but also sort of perform a dance of death around them and rake them with her claws. As this would be extremely difficult and risky to perform to its fullest extent, I gave the ability potentially huge damage. In addition to providing potentially unique and fun gameplay for everyone involved, I think the ability would naturally work well on an assassin, since it would scale inversely with the size of Evelynn's opponent: squishy champions tend to be really small, so she'd have an easier time going around them, but tanky types tend to be a lot bigger, and so would require more moving around. Additionally, it could also make for some interesting counter-itemization and counterpicking, as effects such as and could work as mitigators to this form of Ravage. }} Evelynn temporarily removes herself and the target enemy champion from the map, placing themselves in an exact shadow replica with no other units for 4 seconds. |description2=During this time, Evelynn and her target are completely undetectable and untargetable to all other units on the map, and at the end of the duration both emerge back at their current location. |description3='Evelynn' can choose to enter this realm alone, and can reactivate Last Caress to end the effects early. |range=125 |cooldown= |targeting='Last Caress' is a unit-targeted ability. |spellshield=will block the ability. |additional=As with Ravage, this is a complete break from the original effect: Last Caress on live looks cool, but concentrates far too much of Evelynn's power by design, preventing her from fighting well at all while it's on cooldown. The effect here is intended to be a bit closer to : while that ability is in itself one of the most toxic in the game, it has an interesting core mechanic of forcing a duel between two champions, which I think is not only not toxic, but potentially awesome and interesting to have around. Not only would it work to Eve's intended theme here, as she'd take a champion with her to a sort of deadly tango, but would also provide completely unique power, as she'd be able to take a choice enemy completely out of a fight (along with herself) with a large degree of reliability for at least a few seconds. }} What do you think of these changes? What are your thoughts on Eve, and what do you think her identity is or should be? Does the above kit correspond to that identity? Which direction do you think Rito should take to improve Evelynn? Category:Custom champions